By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    headphones can create health problems
    The Harmful Health Effects of Using Headphones
    September 24, 2021
    Headache causes
    4 Causes Of Headache You Probably Didn’t Know About
    December 28, 2021
    follow these steps to recover from your injury
    What Steps Should You Take to Recover More Quickly from an Injury?
    April 12, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    private
    Private Exchanges: Getting Ready for Individual Health Insurance to Be the Standard
    January 9, 2014
    valueable healthcare programs
    5 Most Valuable Healthcare Programs in 2023
    March 8, 2023
    Johnson & Johnson to Release Clinical Trial Data in Agreement with Yale Medical School
    February 4, 2014
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Reducing Health Care Costs: Let’s Try What Has Worked
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Finance > Reducing Health Care Costs: Let’s Try What Has Worked
BusinessFinanceHealth ReformPolicy & LawPublic Health

Reducing Health Care Costs: Let’s Try What Has Worked

StevenShie
StevenShie
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

Over the weekend, a New York Times article once again highlights the soaring health care costs in the United States. The article reveals that asthma medications that tens of million people in this country rely on to control their conditions can be 35 times more expensive than in Europe—a $250 branded prescription of nasal spray that lasts for one month costs less than $7 dollar in Europe. In other words, $250 can buy two inhalers in the U.S. while 37 of them in Greece.

Over the weekend, a New York Times article once again highlights the soaring health care costs in the United States. The article reveals that asthma medications that tens of million people in this country rely on to control their conditions can be 35 times more expensive than in Europe—a $250 branded prescription of nasal spray that lasts for one month costs less than $7 dollar in Europe. In other words, $250 can buy two inhalers in the U.S. while 37 of them in Greece. Although the out-of-pocket expenditures for consumers are less than the listed price, Americans still pay more for health care services compared to other OECD countries.

healthcare costs

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html?ref=health

Probably we do not need another article to remind us a simple fact that everyone can testify with vivid personal anecdotes—the price tags for health care services—from doctor visit, surgery, hospital care, emergency medicine to prescription drugs—are just too high!

Last year, a group of doctors from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center wrote Sanofi’s new colon cancer drug Zaltrap out of its treatment protocols, based on doctors’ judgment that it was too expensive for the benefits it delivered to patients; last month, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a UK health care regulatory body, published final guidance rejecting the use of Xalkori (crizotinib) for previously treated ALK-positive non-small-cell lung cancer patients. The drug costs more than $100,000 a year in the United States; this summer, I made an ER visit because a bug flew into my ear as I was hiking in a New York state park. The ER doc used tweezers to take the bug out within 10-second (in addition to the one-hour wait). I soon got a bill for over $1,400.

More Read

Image
High Quality, Low Cost HealthCare Video Interview Series: Dr. Jennifer Dyer and EndoGoal
Is Your Online Community a Ghost Town?
Drug Take-Back Day: April 27
7 Things You Should Not Do When Creating Your Health Website
How Hospitals can Obtain Financing in a Challenging Environment
health policy

US health care costs are rising disproportionately compared to quality of care (Source: http://bit.ly/192WoBo )

Everyone is concerned with health care costs and policymakers have been enthusiastically seeking solutions. The landmark Affordable Care Act, although includes several mechanisms to contain costs, has almost no direct measures to address high prices for health care services. According to Jonathan Oberlander, professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, despite the ACA has three major policies that can deal with the cost issue (reduce administrative costs and promote competition among insurers via the Exchanges; the marginal tax to be imposed on high-cost insurance plans in 2018; delivery system reform), but little evidence suggests any of these reforms will generate sizable savings in the short-term.

Finding the answers to reducing health care costs can be extremely complicated. Yet, it can also be quite straightforward: on one hand, competition, less administrative costs and payment reform will reduce costs by enhancing the efficiency of the system; on the other hand, directly addressing the price for health care services will have a larger and more immediate effect on cost reduction. Unfortunately, a lot of discussions around cost containment have been focused on how we should pay for medical care, but little attention has been given to how much we should pay.

Solutions to lower health care costs may not be that difficult to find— measures taken by other OECD countries have demonstrated better patient outcomes can be achieved at lower costs. However, as Oberlander says, “Americans are determined to try all available cost-control options except those that actually succeed elsewhere.”

It is probably unreasonable to blame the Obama administration for not pushing cost reduction harder in the ACA—after all, the biggest task was to get the legislature passed in Congress. As Michael Gusmano, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, points out, Obama was able to contain opposition from powerful organizations such as American Medical Association, American Hospital Association and the pharmaceutical industry by creating a plan that minimizes the threat to the incomes of those who benefit from the existing system—a valuable lesson learned from his predecessors’ success and failure in health care reform.

With an almost intact system and a culture that promotes entrepreneurship and is designed to generate expenditures, reducing health care costs will continue to be a difficult task under the ACA. Sizable savings can only be achieved by introducing policies that directly deal with price and costs such as centralized budgeting and purchasing, prospective payments and price regulation—things that will require significant policy and political maneuver in a country that is religiously ruled by freedom, individualism and free-market.

TAGGED:ACAhealth care costshealth care policyhealth care reformobamacare
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Affordable Care Act Hits Two-Year Mark

March 30, 2012

Distance Medicine Will Transform Medical Practice

April 27, 2012
Dx Cost and patient Centeredness
BusinessDiagnosticsFinanceHospital AdministrationPublic Health

Patient-Centered Physicians Have Lower Diagnostic Testing Costs

April 25, 2014

What’s In Your Energy Drink?: Infographic

April 28, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?